Rating and value of Pierre Joubert's drawings

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Artist's rating and value

An important artistic figure of his time, Pierre Joubert has established himself as a sure bet on the art market. Constantly evolving, his value remains high and his works are sold internationally.

In the auction room, his figurative drawings, which often had an illustrative purpose, are the most sought-after and therefore prized. Watercolors are also popular with collectors.

A work by Joubert can fetch thousands of euros at auction, as evidenced by his gouache on paper, Original cover of Scoutorama n°1, which fetched €24,000 in 2021, whereas it was estimated at between €6,000 and €8,000.

Order of value from the most basic to the most prestigious

The artist's style and technique

In Pierre Joubert's drawings, the line retains this property of structuring form, carving out volumes, guiding the eye without leading it astray.

But it is no longer limited to a simple contour function: it organizes the page like a space of balance, traverses figures without weighing them down, distributes masses with rhythmic precision. The line, fine, supple and continuous, imposes immediate legibility, smoothly, without overloading.

The color, always applied in flat tints, without modeling or gradation, reinforces the clarity of the drawing without disturbing its construction. In his scouting illustrations, history scenes and adventure pictures, light doesn't shape the bodies: it surrounds them, isolates them, tensions them with contrasting tones.

The figures stand out clearly from the background, gestures are sharp, expressions controlled. Space is reduced to essentials, articulated around discreet diagonals and firmly established reading axes. The decor never overflows: it situates, it accompanies, but it doesn't tell the story in place of the figure.

Each element is weighed, adjusted to the whole. The drawing doesn't seek virtuosity, it imposes a hold.

Then, removed from atmospheric effects as well as the expressiveness of free line, Pierre Joubert's style asserts another requirement: that of an informed, constructed, stable drawing, where accuracy takes precedence over effect, and where the image, above all, serves the narrative.

Pierre Joubert's career

In Pierre Joubert's career, classical training retains this function of learning the right line, clear form, structured drawing. As a student at the Arts Décoratifs in Paris, he very soon became part of a tradition of graphic rigor, attentive to legibility, meaning and economy of gesture.

Born in Paris in 1910, he published his first drawings as a teenager in Scout magazines, where he quickly established an identifiable, stable, reproducible style.

From the 1930s onwards, he became the emblematic illustrator of French scouting, shaping its visual imagination in a lasting way. His work extends to books, manuals, posters and the press, in an unbroken continuity, without deviation.

This fidelity to a graphic universe is matched by an abundant output, where each drawing obeys the same principles of construction, clarity and rigor. A regular contributor to Éditions Alsatia, he illustrates the " Signe de Piste " collections, where his style accompanies and extends the spirit of the text.

The war, then the post-war years, do not alter his orientation: he continues to produce with the same precision, the same economy, the same graphic transparency.

Thus, unaffected by the avant-gardes and successive graphic fashions, Pierre Joubert's career is part of an assumed continuity, where the image always remains at the service of the narrative, and the drawing, at the service of the form.

Focus on Le Grand Jeu, Pierre Joubert

In Le Grand Jeu (fig. 1), an illustration taken from a volume in the Signe de Piste collection, the line retains this property of cutting the scene cleanly, distributing figures according to a legible hierarchy, maintaining balance without ever disturbing the clarity of the image.

But here, the dynamic is not based on a variety of effects: it takes root in the rigor of the composition, in the adjustment of the bodies to the space, in the stability of the framing.

The characters - scouts in uniform, in full action - stand out clearly against a backdrop reduced to its essential lines: a few trees, a schematized ground, a discreet horizon. The light, in flat areas of light color, doesn't illuminate a volume, it emphasizes a direction, reinforces a presence.

The expressions are firm, the gestures controlled, the attitudes precise. Movement, if it exists, is held, as if stopped in the instant just before or just after the action.

Detail is never gratuitous: every fold of a scarf, every angle of a tent, every shade of a sky carries a function, designates a reality, builds a landmark. The drawing doesn't recount an anecdotal moment, it embodies an idea, a posture, an order.

Then, detached from any form of improvisation, subject to an internal logic of clarity and coherence, Pierre Joubert's drawing in Le Grand Jeu asserts a desire for graphic mastery, where the image, before seducing, instructs, orders, transmits.

Pierre Joubert's imprint on his period

In Pierre Joubert's work, illustration retains this function of transmission, clarity, visual stability. But it no longer merely accompanies a text: it extends its spirit, embodies its values, fixes its lasting images.

Through his drawings for scouting, children's publishing and the illustrated press, Joubert imposes an immediately identifiable graphic grammar, made up of clean lines, ordered compositions, firm, active silhouettes.

This aesthetic, based on the rigor of the line and the legibility of the narrative, has had a profound effect on several generations of readers, for whom his figures become emblems of a moral, civic and heroic ideal.  

His influence extends beyond the field of illustration: he shapes a collective imagination, he organizes a visual memory, he transmits a certain idea of youth, commitment, righteousness.

Thus, untouched by avant-garde movements but rooted in a tradition of constructed drawing, Pierre Joubert left a strong imprint on his era: not through rupture, but through the constancy of a style, the clarity of an outlook, fidelity to an ordered, legible image of the world, transmitted without emphasis.

The success of press cartoons at auction

In the art market, the press cartoon retains this function of visual testimony, of quickly capturing a current event, of directly expressing a viewpoint. But it does not remain confined to its ephemeral dimension: it is gradually entering the field of collecting, recognized for its graphic and documentary value.

At auction, original drawings by Sem, Caran d'Ache, Dubout or Faizant arouse constant interest, buoyed by the notoriety of their author, the finesse of their execution, and sometimes by their link to a significant event. Artists specializing in fashion such as Erté, Paul Iribe or Georges Lepape are also highly successful.

Prices vary according to the quality of the line, the format, the signature, the state of conservation, but the most emblematic sheets regularly achieve solid auctions.

This success remains measured, but stable. It is based on attention to style, image construction and drawing efficiency. Pen, wash or pencil are not treated as graphic accessories: they structure, organize and synthesize.

So, detached from their reproductive function, press drawings circulate today as autonomous pieces, representative of a precise, informed, sober art of the eye, whose legibility continues to hold the attention of enthusiasts.

For Pierre Joubert's drawings specifically, there is a demand on the market. He is sought after by highly specialized collectors, and his quotation has been stable of late. 99.1% of sales involving this artist take place in France, and 95.8% of lots awarded are in the drawing - watercolor category.

His quotation underwent significant fluctuations and peaks in the 2010s, peaking in 2014, but has been experiencing greater stability since 2015, rising more serenely and gradually in recent years.

Recognizing the artist's signature

Not all of Pierre Joubert's works are signed. Here's an example of his signature.

Expertise your property

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